stien

Any reason against matching Force shifters with a Rival group and calling it a day? Do people really prefer Rival to Ultegra even? I'm thinking about building up a second bike with said group. Should I really upgrade any other part beyond Rival?

twince

I have ridden Sram Rival, Sram Force, Shimano 105, and Shimano Ultegra. I personally prefer Sram to Shimano, and I preper Rival to Ultegra yes. I couldn't tell a HUGE difference between Force and Rival other than weight. I do use a Force BB30 crankset because I think it's stiffer and the crankarms are carbon vs AL on the Rival. Just my .02. my current set up is all Rival with Force crankset. I love it.

Nerull

All SRAM 10 speed road drivetrain components should be compatible. You can even mix in (most? all?) XX mountain components. UMD would sometimes use an XX RD and cassette for mountain rides.

The main difference is weight. Rival and Force are otherwise identical. Red is a little different, but I'm not sure of the details. Still cross compatible though.

travkat

Other than weight not much reason to add Force unless you are going to use the cranks and bb. Otherwise Rival and SRAM for that matter are the bomb.

stien

Well the only reason I'm going with force shifters is availability. How much are rival ones anyway? I found the force set for 170.

RacerOne

Mix and match as you like. You'll be pleased with it however you decide.

veganeric

Force brakes have a stiffer spring. Personally I'd upgrade to those over the rival brakes. As for the shifters, weight is the only noticeable difference. Force supposedly has zero loss on the fd, but from my completely unscientific playing around at my LBS I was unable to notice any difference between it and my Rival.

Does anyone know if there is any difference other than color between Force and Rival FDs? The listed weights for both are identical in both styles.

Shuke

That's because rival has zero loss on the front too, but like Force is lacking zero loss on the rear. Red is zero loss on both the front and rear.

For the Force front derailleur it has the ability to trim, Rival may not. I'm not sure.

engstrom

Rival FD has the ability to trim only the large ring. On my Rival equipped bike I don't need trim on the large ring but I do on the small ring. Oh well, it's a compact crankset so I don't spend too much time in the small chainring and certainly don't get crossed up enough in it to really need an index position.

crhilton

Not quite anymore. The new Apex stuff adds limitations with cassettes and derailleurs because it adds a long cage derailleur and a cassette to match.

crhilton

The rival shifter trims on the big ring.

RoboCheme

What is "zero loss" and what does it do for you?

Thanks,

faire_du_velo

I have rival on my bike but with a force bb30 crank instead.

canam73

It just means as soon at you start moving the shift lever the cable (and derailleur) start moving instead of having a small amount of play in the lever where nothing happens. I have 1st generation sram without it but have ridden a new red bike. On the rear I don't think it makes as much difference, but on the front it is a big improvement. The front shifting is my biggest gripe on my sram c0mpared to my shimano.

martialman.45

I have force shifters and rival group. It works great.

RoboCheme

Thanks

Inertianinja

I've owned 105, Rival, and Red. my 2 cents:

105 was less "mechanical" but i hate the hood shape and i hate having to move the brake lever to shift. i prefer the SRAM doubletap.

Rival vs. Red: besides the weight, Red's shifts are much shorter, this is the "zero loss" stuff. worth the money

stien

So Red shifters with a Rival setup? Room for upgrades. Could be fun.

ilovecycling

I thought Rival and Force only trim while in the small ring to avoid chain rub against the large ring. I also thought there was no trim while in the large ring because you can cross-chain without any rubbing on the new SRAM groups.

Furthermore, I was under the impression that zero loss was for both left and right shifters, and is included for Rival, Force, and Red.

Can someone with knowledge on the 2011 groups chime in to clarify??

foresthill

Trim was in the small ring on 2008 rival and force. with 2009 and later (and all red), trim for all groups is in the big ring. For me, it's a totally moot point, and I get no rub whether I use the trim or not.

Zero loss for the front shifter is on all groups for 2009 and later. it is only the rear shifter for red. 2008 rival and force did not have any zero loss at all, and front shifts to the big ring required a pretty big throw as a result. This was my only real complaint with the 2008 force I had.

crazyarm07

I have Force - the FD trims in the big ring to prevent chain rub on the FD cage when you're cross-chained from the big ring to the big cassette cog. In the small ring, trim on the FD wouldn't do you any good --> if you cross-chained small chainring to the smaller cogs, you'd get chain rub on the large chainring itself before it started rubbing the FD cage. So basically, until SRAM (or someone else) figures out how to trim the big chainring itself, you can't cross chain small-to-small without chain rub.

stien

Can you run small up front and 2nd to smallest in the rear without rub?

Propofol

I'm running SRAM Red shifters with Force front and rear derailleurs, FSA SL-K Light 50/34 crankset, and KMC X10SL chain. Just installed all these things this afternoon and everything works great. Drivetrain is very quiet and shifts are effortless. It took me less than 5 minutes to get used to DoubleTap (and this is coming from someone who's used Shimano brifters all his life until today).

ilovecycling

Thanks for the clarification foresthill & crazyarm07! I'm in the process of deciding which SRAM components to run on the new bike I'll be getting in a few weeks (SuperSix or R3), so that information was really helpful. I'm definitely going with Red shifters. I'll decide whether to go Rival, Force, or Red for the rest depending on how much the total build ends up running me.

I thought Shimano Di2 was able to cross chain in either ring without any rub. Is this true, or would the chain still rub the large ring if cross chained in the little ring up front and smallest cog in the rear?

Inertianinja

My Rival and Red bikes do not rub regardless of cross chaining.
Watch SRAM's youtube FD/RD setup guide- its not hard to do.

Oddly enough, i didnt learn this until i did it myself...LBS always told me the chain has to rub.